McClintock financial math and entrepreneurship teacher Robin Palmer was selected as a 2015 Take Charge Today Master Educator. She was chosen because of her innovative teaching tactics to make math valuable and easier to understand through real world decision-making lessons.
In order to be selected as a Master Educator, Palmer had to fill out a long application, get two great recommendations from people who know her teaching approach, and participate in a 30-minute Skype interview with three people.
When Palmer was selected to be a Master Educator, she had the option to choose between working with technology presenting methods for other teachers, offering a different curriculum, or being a presenter.
“I willingly chose to be a part of the curriculum section,” Palmer said. “I always worry about students being bored, and I want to create more engaging activities for students to share with other teachers.”
The curriculum that Palmer chose to work on this year is all about teaching budgeting skills.
“[I chose budgeting] because if you do not understand how a budget works, it will not matter what you do,” Palmer said.
Palmer’s inspiration to create real world decision-making lessons was first inspired after her first year of teaching.
“I did not know what I was doing; I was teaching from chapter one to chapter two to chapter three and so on,” Palmer said. “ I apologized to my students at the end of the year because if I was bored, I knew they must have been.”
The passion Palmer has for teaching students drives her to meet her goal of influencing other teachers by showing them how easy it is to inspire their students.